[1] The garrison was rarely more than fifty men, and the fort never saw combat, however it became a center of contact and trade with Native Americans and served as a stopping point for Indians traveling to and from Bethlehem, Easton and Philadelphia.

[3]: 224 In late 1755, Colonel John Armstrong wrote to Governor Robert Hunter Morris: "I am of the opinion that no other means of defense than a chain of blockhouses along or near the south side of the Kittatinny Mountains from the Susquehanna to the temporary line, can secure the lives and property of the inhabitants of this country.

[2]: 228  On 29 November, Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg wrote to Governor Morris that a fort was essential to the defense of eastern Pennsylvania, stating: "If the French come and...if they put a garrison in the gaps of the mountains, and make there also a fortification, you cannot come at them at all with any great guns.

[2][3] Fort Allen’s original garrison consisted of 50 men under Captain Isaac Wayne from the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, however lack of training and discipline combined with the need for manpower on farms and homesteads contributed to desertion.

By June 1756, when James Young, Pennsylvania’s commissary general, inspected the fort, he found only fifteen men present and no one commanding the post.

[3] Trade had been seriously disrupted by attacks on settlements in 1755 and early 1756, but many Native American communities were anxious to maintain good relations with settlers and the provincial authorities.

Delegations en route to Philadelphia began visiting Fort Allen regularly, as Bethlehem was still crowded with refugees from the attacks at Great Cove and Gnadenhütten.

Native Americans preferred the relatively isolated location of the fort to local communities where tension and animosity were high at that point in the French and Indian War, especially among refugee settlers whose farms had been attacked and burned.

Traders were attracted to the fort to sell rum, cloth, sugar and other goods, but no permanent trading post was established there until after 1758.

Richard Peters described him as a "lusty rawboned Man, haughty and very desirous of Respect and Command" who could supposedly "drink three Quarts or a Gallon of Rum a Day without being Drunk.

Teedyuscung then announced during the peace conference in Easton that the Lenape were angry over the unfair acquisition of their traditional homeland during the 1737 Walking Purchase.

Peace negotiations were progressing, and the provincial assembly wanted to cut expenditures by reducing garrisons and abandoning those forts that no longer seemed essential.

Fort Allen was maintained largely because it provided a convenient location for Indians to stay on diplomatic visits to Easton or Philadelphia.

He notes in his report: "This is a very poor Stockade, surrounded with Hills, situated on a barren plain, through which the River Leehy runs...There is scarce room here for 40 men.